Russians accuse Kiev of ceasefire violations, poll shows

About half of all Russians think that the Minsk peace agreements are being violated, a survey reveals, and most respondents think the Kiev regime is responsible for continuing military action in Ukraine.

The research conducted by the major government owned public
opinion center VTSIOM has shown that 53 percent of the Russian
public think the Minsk agreements on ceasefire and withdrawal of
heavy weapons from the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine are not
being observed.

Of these people, 68 percent said that the blame for the
continuing military action lies on the Ukrainian authorities and
military and only 2 percent of the public incline towards blaming
the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk Republics. Twenty percent
of respondents who hold that the ceasefire is not being observed
maintain that both parties of the conflict are responsible.

VTSIOM Director Valery Fyodorov said in press comments that the
current attitude of an average Russian to the situation in
Ukraine was caused by growing disappointment in the
once-brotherly nation that unexpectedly started an aggressive
campaign against its own citizens, accompanied by an immense wave
of blatant propaganda.

“It’s very difficult to believe in their peaceful intentions,
especially on the background of lies and propaganda coming from
Kiev. It’s difficult to believe in their commitment to end the
war and settle the conflict, this is the cause of the very strong
skepticism,” RIA Novosti quoted Fyodorov as saying.

In early February this year, VTSIOM asked Russians how they would
describe the current conflict in the east of Ukraine. Half of all
respondents called the military standoff between pro-Kiev
military and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk
a ‘civil war’. Seventeen percent described the events as ‘terror
and genocide’ (without specifying the side committing them) and
another 17 percent perceived the events as ‘anarchy and
banditry’.

In the same research, about 63 percent of respondents said they
saw the continuing growth of tensions and only 25 percent said
that they saw the situation as stable.